FOR MATTERS RELATED TO ADVERTISEMENTS (tariff, requests and availability) mail to thulungakrai@gmail.com or kalimpongpress@gmail.com or newskalimpong@gmail.com

Kalimpong Press Club is a registered organisation having Registration No. S/1L /17670 issued by the Registrar of Firms, Societies and Non-trading Corporations, West Bengal in accordance to the West Bengal Society Registration Act 1961 and is being continuously renewed.

Its members are members of Eastern Himalayan Journalists Union having Registration No.28463 of 2013 (registered under Trade Unions Act, 1926) which is affiliated to Indian Journalists' Union.

20 Dec 2017

TT, 19 December 2017, New Delhi: India's food safety regulator has approved multiple products without adequate testing and has not banned the sale of several products, including energy drinks and neutraceuticals, declared unsafe by scientific panels, a government audit report has found.

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) tabled in Parliament today said the failure of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to monitor or cancel licenses may have led to continued manufacture and sale of possibly unsafe food products.

The CAG, which examined the functioning of the FSSAI and over 200 food testing laboratories recognized by this agency tasked with safeguarding packaged food, also found multiple instances of deficient or inadequate testing of food samples by laboratories ill-equipped for the task.

An audit verification exercise of 4,895 food analysis reports from state food laboratories revealed that 4,866 (99 percent) of the samples were not analysed for pesticides and 4,698 (96 percent) were not analysed for microbial contamination as mandated.

An audit test of the Central Food Laboratory, Calcutta, a key testing centre used by the FSSAI, had declared 178 (60 percent) of 293 food samples as confirming with standards even though they were not analysed for pesticides, heavy metals, and microbes.

The CAG report has observed that the Calcutta laboratory is equipped to analyse only 12 typesd of pesticide residues in food samples, although food safety regulations require that 149 types of pesticide residues be examined in food products.

Since February 2015, the Calcutta laboratory has not been able to conduct any pesticide residue analysis because of breakdown and obsolete conditions of its equipment, the CAG said, calling on the government to improve testing infrastructure in food testing laboratories.

The auditors have also decried delays or refusals by the FSSAI to withdraw licenses to food products declared as not safe by scientific panels.

In one case, the FSSAI issued a "no-objection certificate" to a company selling a caffeine-ginseng combination as an energy drink in November 2013, but did not immediately withdraw the NOC when a scientific panel noted that the product had an "irrational combination of caffeine and ginseng."

The FSSAI's product recall division delayed the recall by 15 months from the scientific panel's observation, resulting in manufacture and sale of the unsafe energy drink up to May 2015, the CAG report said.

The FSSAI also did not cancel the license of a mushroom-based neutraceutical even though a scientific panel had rejected the product. A scientific panel had also recommended the rejection of two other products "Zincovit" and "A to Z NS tablets" - combinations of minerals and vitamins - but the FSSAI did not cancel its NOCs on these products.

The CAG has also referred to FSSAI's delay on "Red Bull," another energy drink, saying the regulator took 29 months to process the case for submission to a scientific panel.

The auditors have asked the FSSAI and state food regulators to conduct surveys of food business activities to build a comprehensive database on food business operators and frame policy guidelines to improve periodic risk-based inspections of food products.

The Union health ministry under which FSSAI functions has been asked to ensure that all food testing laboratories are appropriately accredited and equipped for the tests they are expected to conduct to certify food samples as safe for human consumption.

0
comments:
on "Scan on 'unsafe' food"

Post a Comment

Kalimpong News is a non-profit online News of Kalimpong Press Club managed by KalimNews. It is published simultaneously in this site as well as http://kalimpongnews.net.Please be decent while commenting and register yourself with your email id. Your id will be kept secret, as far as practicable.

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 04 Nov 2018, Darjeeling: Six youths have been arrested here on charges of planning an explosion during last year'...

NOTE: PHOTOS AND PICTURES UNLESS SPECIFIED ARE USED ONLY FOR REPRESENTA- TIONAL PURPOSE.

ADVT

TO LET

ROOMS FOR RENT

Near Biralo Kothi 10.5 Mile Kalimpong

Specification: Three room structure on the top floor of a building with additional one Kitchen and one Washroom and one Bathroom suitable for office

Room 1: 24'X12'

Room 2: 21'X17.5'

Room 3: 11'X8.5'

Kitchen: 10'X8.5'

Bathroom: with Western toilet

Toilet: squat /Indian toilet

Verandah: measuring 66'X3'

Contact: thulungakrai@gmail.com or 9434131719

If You are in Kalimpong

Watch DAINANDINI

produced byKalimNews

a unit Of

Kalimpong Press Club

at 7am & 7pm daily

in Sky Scan Cable network

---------------------------------------

For advertising in DAINANDINIContact:A.K.Rasaily:9434234185Mani Tamang:9800699960

-----------------

Citizen reporters may send their information and news with video clippings to:

D.K.Waiba:9832318537/ 7001230828

Mani Tamang:9800699960/ 8250738904

Manoj Rai:9800265166/ 8250745002

Umesh Tamang: 8001203076
or at newskalimpong@gmail.com or kalimpongpress@gmail.com

Like Us!On Facebook

Support Us

To support this blogsite contributions from well wishers are invited.
You may contribute your donations in the name of “KALIMPONG PRESS CLUB” in its account no.148002080489 of Darjeeling District Central Cooperative bank, Kalimpong Branch (IFSC code: WBSCODJCB01). Please write to us at newskalimpong@gmail.com or kalimpongpress@gmail.com

Some of the news, articles, informations and Photos are shared, adapted, copied and republished after their publication in their respective websites with courtesy from the following internet editions of these news papers:

ABOUT US

Kalimpong News is an online news of Kalimpong Press Club administered by Board of Directors of KalimNews.

KalimNews is the news agency of the Kalimpong Press Club.It is a unit of the Club and news agency that provides news for a/ its daily news channel DAINANDINI, broadcasted in areas of Kalimpong by the Sky scan cable network; b/ Kalimpong News - available at two online news sites http://.kalimpongnews.net and http://kalimpongonlinenews.blogspot.com.

The blog site http://kalimpongonlinenews.blogspot.com was started on May 23, 2009 and officially inaugurated on Nov 16, 2009 and its online news site kalimpongnews.net was started and inaugurated on 20, Nov 2010.

CONTACT US

Citizen reporters may send photographs related to news with proper information to newskalimpong@gmail.com

DAINANDINI

Dainandiniis the first news based informative Cable Television Channel programme of Kalimpong, broadcasting since 15th March 2007 and transmitted by Sky Scan Cable Networks of Kalimpong. This 30 minute programme is aired twice daily at 7 am, 11 am and 7 pm. KalimNews is the news agency of Kalimpong Press Club that administrates the programme of DAINANDINI as well as online news Kalimpong News available in its two sites http://kalimpongonlinenews.blogspot.com. And http://kalimpongnews.net

Kalimpong Press Club

Kalimpong Press Club--- It was established on 16th Nov 1998 for the welfare and solidarity of the Journalists of Kalimpong sub-division and persons interested in Journalism. Its objective is to unite all member journalists for the betterment of media, acquire admissible rights of the media and media persons and assist the administration and other bodies working for the smooth function and development of the society and public institutions. It aims to bring all the people related to journalism in a single platform for the benefit and development of the society. It is a registered organisation having Registration NO. S/1L /17670 issued by the Registrar of Firms, Societies and Non-trading Corporations, West Bengal in accordance to the West Bengal Society Registration Act 1961.

Its members are members of Eastern Himalayan Journalists Union which is affiliated to Indian Journalists Union.